Africa's Cancer Care Capacity Gets Boost as Merck Foundation Focuses on Building Local Expertise
Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, recently published an article titled 'We Did Not Donate Cancer Care. We Built the People Who Could Deliver It.'
In this article, Dr. Kelej shares her leadership journey in strengthening cancer care capacity across Africa and emphasizes the importance of building specialized human capacity to transform healthcare systems.
Dr. Kelej explains that without skilled and specialized healthcare professionals, even the best infrastructure, medicines, and technology cannot create a sustainable cancer-care system.
Through Merck Foundation's specialized medical education programs, more than 280 scholarships have been provided in multidisciplinary cancer care for healthcare providers from 35 African countries. This has supported the training of the first local oncologists in several countries, including Liberia and The Gambia.
Dr. Kelej highlights that building human capacity requires a long-term vision and emphasizes the importance of addressing geographical inequalities in access to specialized cancer care.